East Bengal clinches Federation Cup

East Bengal defeated Mohun Bagan 1-0 to clinch the Federation Cup for 7th time. The goal came through Vashum in 56th minute. The game had all the drama and thrill as it saw as many as 3 goals disallowed.

The game started in a good pace with both team making good moves early on. East Bengal tried to attack mostly from the left flank through long balls to the in form Tolgay but Mandi and Azim were rock solid to clear those attacks. Penn was rarely involved in any of the attack by East Bengal that led Mohun Bagan dominate the midfield. The strikers of East Bengal both Robin and Tolgay were ill fed upfront. Out of the run of play East Bengal were given a penalty when Dhanrajan fouled Tolgay in the box but the Blacktown striker failed to convert the penalty for two successive times as his shot kissed the sidebar. East Bengal crawled back to the game slowly in the last few minutes of the 1st half. Meanwhile Mohun Bagan’s attack were much more organised and thus were proving to be very effective. Snehashish was looking lively through his runs on the left flank while Manish Mathani controlled the midfield nicely.

Second half brought much more creativity for the red and golds as Penn was used more often and thus the passes were seen more than the first half. East Bengal were looking more lively of the two sides mainly due to Penn Orji‘s involvement in the midfield. East Bengal finally broke the deadlock on 56th minute when Robin trapped an aerial ball and passed the ball to an unmarked Vashum who finished calmly past Shilton to make it 1-0. Aussie striker Tolgay was replaced by Ekene Ikenwa, a former Salgaocar striker who recently joined East Bengal. Tolgay didn’t have the best of the game as he wasted many golden opportunity which included a penalty but he never lacked the flair which kept the Mohun Bagan defence busy. Muritala was shown the exit in the dying minutes when he was awarded a second yellow card. The scoreline remained unchanged till the final whistle as East Bengal won their 7th Federation cup and newly appointed coach Trevor Morgan won his 1st trophy as a coach of Red and Golds.